"Hello? Anyone in there?"

The three of them could feel the Core shaking, as someone—Lapis and her impatience—was knocking on them.

"I'll handle it," Niwla said. "Just launch the Ice Arrows when it's ready."

Winal nodded. And using his extra legs, forced Alwin to nod as well, his folds jiggling inwards from the forceful action.

Niwla waddled out of the Core, back into their shared mindspace and onto the control seat. There he could see Lapis—more specifically one of her drones—repeatedly tapping on his head.

"Stop it," he said, swiping away the drone.

It spun in the air, before coming to a stop. The drone flashed a slew of vulgar beeping lights before flying away back into Lapis' lab to continue more of her baking experiments. Niwla detected a whiff of baked chocolate in the air, but that was important. What was was Lapis' incessant knocking.

"What's the hold up, bird boy?" Lapis asked. "It's just an Ice Arrow."

"The hold up is you disturbing me when I'm trying to craft the spell."

"It's just an Ice Arrow, it's not exactly rocket magic, unless… Oh you little rascal. You were inspired by the theory books and already trying to improve on how you make the spell. So, tell me. How are you doing it?"

Niwla paused to think. Here Lapis was, the authority of magic in the army and she was genuinely asking about his process. Maybe she had some insights to deliver to him. It might actually by worth it to explain his process. So, he did. Detailing about the snowstorm, the heat transfer mechanisms, and about the insulated delivery system. Of course, he left out the part about who did what. It meant less things for Lapis to focus on which means a lesser chance she'd go on a tangent about something completely irrelevant and could instead focus on helping him be more efficient with Mana.

"Wow. That's a lot of brain power just to make an Ice Arrow. Sure, it's certainly a faster way to make Ice Mana, but is it really worth it?"

"What do you mean?"

"All of that effort just to make an Ice Arrow. Seems a bit extreme."

"Then how do you make an Ice Arrow?"

"I just think and it happens."

Right, Lapis was extremely talented at manipulating Mana. She didn't have to go through the lengthy process just like he did.

"Okay, then do you have any suggestions?"

"Honestly, not really. It's a good step in the right direction, but I think that such a huge setup just to create Ice Arrows feels like such a waste. Maybe you could try varying it up a bit to make the expansion more justified. Either that or create a buttload of Ice Arrows."

"So either increase production of Ice Arrows or diversify to take full advantage of the super Ice Mana factory that I've just recently created?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have any basic Ice Elemental Skillbooks for me to read? Something to help me diversify my Ice repertoire."

"Nope. You're a big boy now. Which means no Skillbooks for you. Prove that you're worthy of being called an apprentice of the great Lapis, the Minister of Magic. Come up with a brand new Ice Elemental Spell before. And when I say brand new I don't mean something that hasn't been registered in the System. But if you do that I'd be really impressed. I mean brand new as in something you've never done before."

"That's a tall order."

"Not really. I'd say it's about chick height."

Niwla ignored that. "Can I ask for some tips if I'm stuck?"

"This is the only tip I'm going to give you."

Lapis turned around and slowly hovered out of the door. Niwla just stared unsure what she was doing. Normally she'd rush off, but she was moving deliberately slower than normal.

All of a sudden he felt a chill right above his wing. Which was surprising considering he was a Cold Turkey. Not even the freeze of the Ice Tribulation could get under his feathers. He looked down to find his shoulder frozen. Then he turned back just in time for Lapis to make her grand exit.

"The only tip I'm giving you is a cold shoulder."

The moment she finished her statement she zoomed out of the room, slamming the door shut. Static buzzed over the speakers.

"Good luck," Lapis said before the static buzzed off.

That was a waste of time. Expected, but still a waste of time nonetheless.

Just as Niwla was about to focus back on the Core, the ground opened up in front of him. Ascending from below was Alwin's biggest nemesis, the Wooden Training Dummy.

It was good timing too, because he could feel an itch in his throat, beckoning him to yell out.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Ice Arrow!" Niwla shouted.

Condensing in front of him was an icicle. It launched forward, leaving a trail of cool mist in its wake, before striking the dummy. The icicle shattered upon impact. Expected, but what wasn't was the smallest wooden chip that came along with it.

A non-Essence crafted spell was able to damage the dummy. That was amazing. Maybe—

The sound of a door slamming open interrupted Niwla's thoughts. Lapis and her drones swarmed in again. This time they didn't surround him, instead zipping straight toward the Wooden Training Dummy.

Blue scanning lights shot out of the tip of their heads. They circled it, taking snapshots and recordings of the dummy. A separate group of drones were tasked with cataloging the shards of Ice Arrows that had been shattered and now lay sprinkled on the ground, slowly melting and dissolving away into particles.

"What's going on, Lapis?"

"You damaged the training dummy."

"And? Didn't I do that with the Ice Essence crafted Ice Arrow?"

"Yes! And that was extremely revolutionary!"

"What's so different about this? I mean, I know it wasn't made using Ice Essence, but does it really warrant such a huge reaction?"

"Yes!" Lapis shouted. "Tell me, bird boy. How much do you know about enchantments?"

"Not much."

"Well, that's more of a second year thing. What about Resistances?"

"They allow you to resist a certain Element?"

Gosh, he was starting to sound like Alwin.

"Basically, this Wooden Training Dummy right here was specially enchanted by both me and the Minister of Defense. It's my own personal dummy with even better enchantments than the ones at the academy. And do you know what you did to them?"

"I damaged them?"

"Yes!"

"And do you know what that means?"

"If I did, I would be as excited as you are. I think?"

"This dummy has a 100% Resistance to every Element and you managed to damage it. Twice! Using two completely different means."

"Wait. What? I just saw an Ice Arrow at it. How is it two different ways?"

"The first one was using Ice Essence to make an Ice Arrow. The second one was now."

"I get it. But also don't. How did I even damage the dummy today?"

"You see the first time with the Ice Essence Ice Arrow, you delivered a burst of pure Ice Elemental energy that shattered the Ice Resistance Enchantment."

"I did what?"

"Exactly. Though don't get me wrong, bird boy. The durability of an Enchantment depends on the strength of the Resistance and the material it is being enchanted on. What you did was impressive but it's called a Wooden Training Dummy for a reason."

"Still. I knew they were strong but I didn't realize Essence crafted spells were this strong. Though, what made today's Ice Arrow different?"

"Your Essence purity. If I'm reading the results right it boosted the output of your Ice Arrow beyond 100%."

"Again. How does that make sense?"

"I don't know! And that's the best part."

"Wow… That's wow."

If what Lapis was saying was correct. That meant that no amount Resistance armor could block his attacks. That was… incredible."

"Do you know what that means?" Lapis asked.

"I think I do." Niwla smiled.

"More research."

His smile turned down. Not a frown, but a neutral beak expression. Lapis was right, more research was required. However, Niwla didn't exactly want to perform more Tribulations right now.

"Lapis."

"Yes, little bird boy apprentice of mine? What do you want? To perform more experiments?"

"You know what I want. A trip to the library. A proper one, so that I can prepare for the Tribulations to come."

"Hmmm how bout no. You've got all of the basic theory needed already. Now go practice. Improve that Ice Arrow of yours or else."

"Or else what?"

The floor trembled. White square panels receded and walls extended up to the ceiling. Niwla was trapped inside of another white room.

Dropping from the ceiling was another training dummy. It plummeted, wobbling before coming to a stop.

Static buzzed overhead and Lapis' voice could be heard all around him.

"Try and damage that Stone Training Dummy then I'll let you out."

"But I can already bypass the Ice Resistance on the Wooden Training Dummy. How is this any different?"

Niwla stood there, waiting for a response, but none came. He sighed.

Dealing with Lapis was like dealing with a bigger and more powerful Alwin. If only manipulating her was as easy as Alwin. He sighed again.

That left him with very little choice on what to do. If she wanted him to damage the Stone Training Dummy then so be it. That way he'd be able to take a trip to the library ASAP.

An icicle condensed right in front of his Cold Turkey body, chilling the air around him that had already warmed up. It launched forward, straight toward the Stone Training Dummy. The Ice Arrow struck it, shattering into a thousand pieces.

Niwla moved closer to inspect his handiwork, expecting a chip where the Ice Arrow had impacted the dummy. Instead all he found was smooth, gray stone.

What? How?

Based on what Lapis had said, his Ice Arrow should now be able to bypass any Ice Resistance Enchantments and yet the Stone Training Dummy remained unscathed. Unless… was Lapis' theory wrong? He had to let her know about this.

"Lapis—"

"Dummy."

A voice interrupted him. A certain slimy voice.

Within their shared mind, Niwla turned around to look at Alwin.

"What did you just say?"

"I said dummy, dummy."

"And why did you call me that?"

"Because the reason why the Ice Arrow didn't hurt my mortal nemesis' older brother is because it's not strong enough."

"You heard what Lapis said. The Ice Arrow should be able to bypass any Ice Resistance Enchantments set up."

"Yeah, she did say that. But she didn't say anything about Physical Resistances."

Niwla paused to ponder, stroking his beak with his feathery wings.

"So, you're saying that our Ice Arrows aren't physically strong enough to damage the Stone Training Dummy?"

"Duh. Why else do you think Lapis wanted us to improve our Ice Arrow?"

"To prove a point about how theory is superior to Skillbooks?"

"Well, that. But also for us to grow stronger!" Alwin declared.

"Two birds, one stone," Niwla mumbled.

"More like one bird, one ant, one slime, with one stone, but I digress," Alwin said. "Let's get improving!"

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